The pressure to remove plastics from beauty product packaging is getting hard to ignore.
A recent article in on Fortune Magazine’s website took a look at the problem of plastic packaging in the beauty industry and the scrutiny that industry is under right now. With its heavy reliance on plastics, the consensus is that the beauty business is a significant global polluter.
Only about 9 percent of the world’s plastic has been recycled since the beginning of large-scale plastic production. The article points out that, since the beauty industry generates more than 120 billion units of packaging every year, it is responsible for a huge amount of plastics in our landfills and microplastics in our oceans.
Brands including Unilver and L’Oréal have joined the U.S. Plastics Pact in an effort to overhaul their packaging design and help address some of these problems. This pact represents a collaborative effort to bring together government agencies, NGOs, and brands to work toward sustainability goals. For instance, L’Oréal’s goal is to make all of its plastic packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025.
Unfortunately, though, two new studies published in December and cited in this article demonstrate that the use of plastic in and of itself can have consequences. The studies revealed the presence of toxic chemical additives and pollutants that pose multiple health threats to both humans and the environment. So forward-thinking brands are looking to reduce or even eliminate the use of plastic altogether.
One promising example is a French brand called La Bouche Rouge, which is free of petrochemical derivatives, silicones, and microplastics in both its formula and packaging. It started out with a single lipstick product and has since expanded to include mascara, liners eyeshadow, and accessories. Its cases are refillable and are made from recycled metal and either upcycled leather or vegan leather. With its hard-line stance on plastics and toxic-free ingredients, La Bouche Rouge has become a champion of “blue beauty,” a newer movement that promotes nontoxic products both in composition, production, packaging, and distribution to limit the danger to human health and the impact on our oceans.
Read the complete Fortune article here.
Brands that are willing to think outside the box (sometimes literally) are the ones that will lead the way in the coming years. Figuring out how to create packaging that has the least impact on the planet isn’t quick or simple, but it’s the right thing to do. Your customers are starting to demand it, and government regulations are starting to require it. Let AMGRAPH help you meet this challenge! If you want to develop safe, earth-friendly packaging that works within your budget, we have the experience to make that happen. Bring your project to AMGRAPH today!
